[Kindle] Published 3 books. What's next?

Here's a few things to consider with Kindle.

#1 The easiest ways to get sales is to be ranked for keywords in the kindle search.

#2 The way to get ranked is by generating sales and getting reviews.

#3 You should be building a list and promoting future books to that list.

Right now, no one knows who you are and more than likely, most people aren't finding YOUR books when they search through Kindle.

That's what you need to fix.

In the beginning, you want to focus on choosing GREAT keywords. Generally someone with a low competition of 20,000 or less is considered a fairly easy to rank for keyword on Kindle. Then go out and start hustling reviews of your books. Do review swaps or whatever you need through facebook groups or websites that offer kindle review exchanges.

That will help you get some reviews and ideally you'll get ranked for a few keywords IF you've done good keyword research.

You should also consider your price. Although I don't have any books in that particular niche, I think something with a higher perceived value would sell better, BUT that's just my theory since I've never tried selling in the Self Help niches. Take a look at what your competition is doing and test it out for yourself.

You should also be building a list and promoting your future books to those people too.

I know a few people who sell decently on Kindle in similar niches to yours and they do blogging/list building around their target markets to generate sales for their Kindle books which you can find listed at the bottom of each one of their emails.

They use blogging and article marketing to drive traffic, just like the regular old affiliate marketers and list builders and info product creators use.

In the end, you have 3 ebooks for sales. You still need to drive traffic. If you get enough reviews and you've chosen the right keywords, Kindle does have buyer traffic.

Can you post the pictures to imgur so I can see the pics' details? I can't see the large version, I keep going to a login page.

One nice trick to have up your sleeve is to have links in the books going to your website... offering an extra chapter for the book, or something extra... have them sign up to a list, now you can market to that list.

This allows you to cross-promote your books... if someone likes one of your books, they're quite likely to be willing to buy something else.

I currently have four books up on Kindle, and if I can stop procrastinating, I have several more in the works...

Also, how do i should start building a list? Since sometime around july/august, i have written a short (4-6 sentence) success tip everyday and uploaded it on instagram and twitter. Would it be better if i use that content to build a mailing list instead? I'm looking for something with very minimal maintenance and low cost since I spend all day and night studying and have no income, so starting a website wouldn't be an ideal option.

Very good. If your book feedback is good, your books will be sold more & more. Your main intend should be the customers satisfaction. If you book is on the first place of the search, it would better for you. so try top do these two. Thanks

Your question on building a list...I have had success with the following:

1) Blog posts around your niche - submitting those to social (Twitter, Facebook, Google +)
2) Build communities in social networks NOT by just pushing information, but by engaging in conversations with others, retweeting, posting videos, etc... You don't grow social influence by always yelling (equivalent to just posting your saying or quotes)
3) Expand traffic source from video - produce regularly 2-3 videos a week around your keyword topics - make them results-focused around most compelling urgencies in these niche areas

I would put together a content plan (and perhaps some giveaways) around specific micro-niches around the topics you have chosen - for example "How to build your confidence as a parent" or "5 Confidence Boosters That Will Help You Get A Raise/Promotion/Business Profit..."

Personal Development requires that you not only focus products on techniques and specific self-help areas (Ex motivation, confidence, procrastination, etc...) but that you target one-step further on how achieving improvements will help them achieve something in their lives.

Jeff

I have about 10 books published on Kindle from earlier this year. I have focused my methods elsewhere , because keywords were a pain in the rear even when I used tools like Kindle Samurai to find me good keyword choices I could rank for. Some books earned as much as $300 in the first 2 weeks after the initial pay period; but dropped down as other books gradually outranked me and the keywords became more satured. I was earning around $600-$700 a month and it has gradually dropped to around $100-$150 a month now that I haven't done anything with it.

If you want to stick to kindle only (not recommended) you will have to focus on making sure your books are high quality, review trolls will destroy you even if the book is mediocre.You also need to do as much keyword research as you can for the 7 keywords they allow you. And you need to try and get more books out monthly if you want to increase revenue every month. You also need a good cover.
Also make sure the book has a solid description to convince potential buyers to get on board. A lot of books still don't do this.

Take the care to get a book out properly (as outlined in the above paragraph) before moving to the next one, otherwise you're not optimizing the value potential.

The other route is publish books in your niche on popular topics, run the free promotions and build your list. Optin rates will be extremely low from kindle books compared to solo ads, but even 10% of your free downloaders when you got 1500 downloads would mean 150 leads on a list which is amazing to get for free. You could use this as a lead magnet and count any sales on the books when they aren't in free promotion as a bonus.Building a list will be more profitable in the long run.

A few non sugar-coated thoughts:

Giving your book away for free is basically useless, and raising your prices after achieving a few downloads was a big mistake. People who download free books will download anything that looks remotely useful/entertaining. Getting a download isn't something to take personal or be proud about. You were just their next click.

Most of them will never open your book or read past the first page, and that's the cold hard truth. They are serial downloaders. Also, it's a pretty established fact that downloads don't result in reviews.

To get consistent sales on Amazon, you need an established platform and fan base. To be blunt, you probably won't achieve much success outsourcing non-fic unless your ghostwriters are true experts in the subject matter and native-English speakers. A few typos in non-fic is enough to garner several 1 star reviews unless the book is blow-your-mind spectacular. These reviewers are not "trolls." They have the right to expect a typo-free manuscript and a well-organized book containing exclusive information. If that's your book, then you shouldn't be giving it away for free in the first place.

Unfortunately, 90% of Amazon non-fic is run-of-the-mill, rewritten hash. I'm not saying yours is.

Quite possibly. It depends on whether your sample size is large enough to account for variance. In Texas Holdem, it's possible to get a pair of aces several times in an hour. A new player might come to think that this is normal, but it's just variance. It's a statistical anomaly. I'm not implying that anyone here is inexperienced at marketing. I'm just trying to drive my point home.

It's a fact that most people who download free books are addicted to downloading free books. Their engagement is extremely low. To the OP: this means that they are not your target audience, which is why they often don't leave reviews.They just had a mild interest in subject Y and saw that your book covers subject Y and is free.

If you build a fan base, you will never have to give your work away for free. Paradoxically, the best way to build a fan base is to give your work away for free. However, the Amazon platform is not the ideal way to do this. WattPad is much better. It's basically YouTube for content. The site allows you to gain "fans"—read, a list—that you can blast messages to at any time. You'll have to put your work on the platform one chapter at a time, and you won't make any money from it, but if you plan on creating several books this isn't a big deal. Once you have a good number of fans, start selling your work via Amazon AND Smashwords.

Also: I just shake my head when I see people in the KDP forum talking about the "sales" they got from their promotion. Amazon calls downloads "sales" as a way to placate their content producers. It's an ego stroke.

Hi,

How long are your books? This can play a factor in your sales. You might want to consider doing a $.99 sale and promoting it heavily.

Keep writing as much as possible and publishing often. This is a great way to find new readers.

The third thing I'd recommend is finding places to promote, specifically to places where readers hang out. Check out Fire and Ice Book Tours, from my understanding they accept Fiction and Nonfiction.

I would keep publishing more and master the whole process.
Statistically, the more that you put out there, the more likely
that one of those will blow up and pay you a very nice income

These seem like typical outsourced books. Boring, short, and written in a non-conversational tone. You need to spice them up a little. There are millions of books like this on Kindle. People want better. Write them yourself or pay a better writer. I read some of the habit stacking book and the writing was stiff and awkward like it was written by someone who's not great with the English language. There were no earthshaking ideas and most of the concepts seemed like rehashed info from other books. The books need better research. Hopefully, you can add some flair and new ideas to them and start making some money for yourself.

The Kindle book model for making money is something that it's like lottery, you can win big or you don't make almost no money at all. However, the best thing you can do is find a niche and create Kindle books as lead generators for building your email list, then you can focus on monetizing the back end with information products, membership sites and coaching and that is where the big money is.

Hi

I agree that these need to be high quality book for the money. And you need to produce as many as possible. I try for one a month. Persistence and Marketing your books are the key. There are been some very good answers in this post.

RL

I think that your keywords aren't good. I would recommend you to buy Kindle Money Mastery course which will show you how to research profitable keywords and market your eBook successfully